Annecy Lets Junk in Competition

The African “junkmation” movie, The Legend of the Sky Kingdom, has been selected for official competition in the feature film category for the 2003 Annecy Film Festival in June. The film is one of only five works selected from a field of 1309 submissions.

The story of three orphan slaves who make a daring escape from an underground city and an evil emperor was realized through stop-motion animation using puppets and sets created entirely from discarded materials. Three years in the making, the 35mm feature was self-financed by the husband and wife producing team of Phil and Jacqui Cunningham. Director Roger Hawkins and animation director Brent Dawes were aided by a crew of 15 young artists, animators and technicians.